Don't dump your CRT RPTV! - Page 362

Now bob, you and I both know that while true, (CRT being affected by magnetic field(s) from LOUD playing or STRONG magnets used in the drivers themselves) RPTV, generally is unaffected due to the distance of the CRTs from the speakers themselves, while direct view the distance is a mere few inches on average.

So in conclusion, put an unshielded speaker next to any CRT and there will be picture distortion. But use any speaker 16" or more away, and it becomes a none issue.

As usual, the Master using the correct terms. Thanks for the clarification Bob.

So, from this interesting discussion, I take that it is okay to use a shielded center speaker in front of our CRT RPTVs...correct?

I'm going to start working on my hitachi 51uwx20b again. I tried a plasma but that didn't work to well for me. I'm planning to do a few things: Geometry adjustment (somewhere in the service menu?), focusing, and a decent greyscale adjustment as i accidentally adjusted the blue guns screen control.
The geometry is pretty bad on this set, so i figure even an eyeballed adjusment would improve it, i'm thinking of using string and tape to make a jig based on service manual jig measurements but i'm open to better ideas. I'm hoping fixing geometry will also improve detail?
I don't have a meter and i can't seem to find one used so i'll have to eyeball the blue gun screen adjustment should i just get it as even as possible in comparison to the other guns using a greyscale image?
I was also thinking of lining the cabinet with an anti reflective material and i heard this can be done inside the lens casings as we'll which would be alot more involved. Which is more effective at reducing stray light?
I did a basic cleaning when i got the set but i'm not sure if hitachis need deep lens cleaning or not, are they relatively sealed off after the first lens?
Finally i have access to the original avia as well as dve, considering that i don't have a meter would either be useful to me? and if so which is more highly regarded?
Keep in mind the set is a freebie so unless i can buy a meter for somewhere between 20-60$ it wouldn't be feasable for me at the moment.
Thanks in advance

So would the distortion disappear when the unshielded speaker was removed?

Yes.

Thanks

Just out of curiosity, why is that? I've only ever watched one or two DVDs ever on our Mit, but I just popped 'em into the old original Xbox, which does a fantastic job of converting just about anything up to 1080i, maybe even better than the computer =-O.

- 2B

If I could, I would like to recommend XBMC and the original Xbox for this task, as it does a fantastic job of scaling standard def or 480p content up to 1080, and you don't need one of those expensive HDMi converters or BlueRay players or "1080i DVD players" or stuff like that.

It does have its drawbacks though; for one, you've got to do at least a softmod of the Xbox, which isn't difficult, but it can be a minor inconvenience depending on the equipment you've got. At any rate, the Xbox is the poor man's media center "computer" after it's modded. You can upgrade the hard drive and it makes a great music library or place to put DVDRips (if you have a lot of DVDs, which I don't). It's powered by a Pentium3 700Mhz processor and 64MB of RAM, but it can play 720p HD video if you convert it right, and it's also compatible even the optical port for better sound. It definitely earns the award for "most done with the least hardware", especially considering it came out in 2001.

The best part is, if you shop around, you can get one for less than ten bucks, and component cables for around ten also.

If anyone is interested by this, a great place to start would be on the new XBMC community forums at XBMC4XBOX.org (which is down ATM, but it should be fixed very shortly).

- 2 Bunny

A lot of people are afraid to touch those screen adjustment trim pots, and for good reason! There is however a VERY simple way to adjust those especially the blue gun. The Blue is the easiest to adjust, Green second easiest and red is a little tricky. What you need to do is go into the service menu, soon as you enter it you'll see at the top a tab called "service", push right on your remote to enter that mode. once it enters you'll see what looks like just a black screen. This is the adjustment screen, what you want to do here is adjust the blue trim pot until it almost disappears from sight. once you've done that, just hit exit on your remote, this part might scare you though, once you hit exit the screen blinks for a second or two and while it does that it displays a screen where it looks like your convergence goes all out of wack, its not and will display normally in seconds.

Now you'll notice that while your in the service menu, whatever you were watching is still displaying. put in a blu ray calibration disk and have your TV to this input BEFORE going in to the service menu. This is a great way to judge visually with a calibration disks greyscale pattern, if its blue-ish (too much blue) or red-ish/green-ish (not enough blu) and you know you've gone too far either way with that adjustment. If it has a red-ish/green-ish hue, DO NOT ADJUST either of those, Adjust the blue ONLY! This Obviously is not going to give you a Perfect adjustment but you can Defiantly get it to a very acceptable level and is what is called for in the service manual for technicians in the field.

Also, one last thing. when your in that service mode screen, it should be Black and as you raise the blu trim pot you'll get a blue line going side to side and in the middle of your screen. That line is what your looking for, Lower the trim pot until that line almost disappears

Things to look out for,
1st) those trim pots are probably the most sensitive adjustments screws I've ever seen in my life. moving it just a millimeter is HUGE!

2) Only adjust what needs to be! if the red and green look good with a greyscale pattern but you cant see them in that service (Black screen) mode, Leave them alone! only adjust the blue.

3) Do this adjustment in a Dark room! The way this adjustment works, lowering the blue screen trim pot until the point you can barely see it on the screen and Any light reflecting off your screen makes it impossible to get it right. You'll see once your in this mode for adjustment that the light output gets very dim as your lowering it.

4) PATIENCE! Take your time and plan to be there for a bit. take brakes if your eyes start bugging out. Patience!

5) You can DO IT! dont be afraid, whats the worse that can happen? I mean the blue is already out and the worse you can do is keep it out. You Can Do IT!

Hope this helps you!

Thanks, that's exactly the way i did it. It might still be slightly to blue but like you said those trim pots are sensitive little buggers so it'll probably take a couple tries to get it perfect and it's not worth it until i get proper calibration equipment. I'm not afraid to adjust anything on this set I got it for free cause i really like deep blacks for classic stealth gaming and i wanted to get into calibration. Unless changing a certian setting would cause something to blow up then i'd be afraid
I got the lenses focused the best i could as well today, it's onto geometry tommorow. Could you point me towards the geometry settings in the service menu?

I do believe that i have decided to dump my CRT/RPTV......................

I guess "afraid" might have been the wrong word, I've just read in this tread multiple times and it was Strongly suggested that touching those screen adjustments is pretty much the worse thing you could do and your screwed if you do. I mean, if they don't need it, of course don't touch them. Adjusting it wont be the end of your TV though.

As far as the geometry goes, you wont find that in the service menu, thats the DCAM. To access this you need to have your magic focus in auto.

Manual Convergence for the Hitachi
1) Receive an NTSC signal.
2) Press Magic Focus to begin magic focus
3) Press magic focus again during the magic focus process to get the "stop" screen
4) While stop screen is up, press STATUS or INFO on the remote control (R/C) to bring you to DCAM mode and
the service grid
5) When you first get in here, I believe red is the selected color by default (it is flashing).
6) To choose other colors to converge, use the following buttons on the R/C:
a) "STATUS" - Green
b) "0" - Red
c) "ANT" - Blue
7) Start from the center of the screen and work your way out on one color at a time. I adjusted red across the
whole screen to match green. Then I switched to blue, and adjusted that to green as well. After you adjust blue, you
may want to go back and adjust some red again, until the convergence looks good.
(a) Use 4, 6, 2, and 5 on the R/C to move the cursor position(dotted lines).
(b) Use thumb stick to move the convergence point color.
8 ) I did not adjust the green at all. I use the green as the guide and did not adjust the location of any green point.
This is highly suggested unless you have geometry problems, Which you do.
9) When going along the lines and adjusting, you may run into the problem of getting an "S" curve on the line.
You'll know if you get there. Basically, no matter what you do to adjust the line to be converged, the middle of the
line between the points will not straighten out (it bends between the points). To fix this, the manual recommends
going to the (7x5) mode which gives you less points to adjust. I had this problem, and the solution worked. There is
also another mode (3x3) which gives you even less points. Basically, if the set looks good, you only fine tune it in
(13x9) mode. If you have serious problems, the grids work as:
3x3 - "coarse"
7x5 - "medium"
13x9 - "fine"
10) To get to each of these patterns use the following on the R/C: (only if you need to)
1. (3x3) Press "STATUS" 5 times (only works when DCU is in uncorrected state)
2. (7x5) Press "0" 5 times
3. (13x9) Press "ANT" 5 times

Note: The grid size doesn't change, but the cursor "skips" a line.

11) If you adjust the 3x3, then you should go to the 7x5, and then the 13x9. depending on where
you start, work your way up, and always finish on the 13x9
12) When finishing up the 13x9 mode, to get additional grids on the edges of the screen, press the PIP CH button
on the remote control while in the digital convergence adjustment mode (DCAM). Fine tune the edge convergence
as necessary. To exit, press PIP CH again.
13) When convergence is acceptable, press PIP MODE to write data to ROM memory. ROM WRITE? is displayed
to alarm system that ROM will be overwritten with new data. Press the PIP MODE button again to write
displayed data to ROM.
14) DATA WRITE TO ROM will take approximately 4 seconds and no picture will be displayed.
15) Green dots will be displayed when operation is completed.
WARNING: YOU MUST DO THE FOLLOWING STEPS TO COMPLETE MAGIC FOCUS
INITIALIZATION!!! THERE HAVE BEEN MANY POSTS THAT PEOPLE HAVE HAD PROBLEMS
WITHOUT DOING THIS STEP BECAUSE THEY LOOSE MAGIC FOCUS!
16) Press MUTE to return to convergence pattern, then confirm again convergence is acceptable.
17) Press PIP MODE and then PIP CH to initialize Magic Focus. The initialize operation starts and several
windows appear during this operation. It takes about 30 seconds or less.
18 ) When green dots appear, initialize operation is finished.
19) Turn power OFF.
21) Wait a few seconds. Turn the TV on, and you should have your normal signal. Press Magic Focus button just
to make sure the magic focus still works (and that you did the last few steps properly)



If your TV does not have a magic focus feature or if you still can't get into DCAM using the method described above try this procedure. On some hitachi TV sets there is a small light blue button located on the front of the convergence board. This is the side that faces the front of the TV. Its very hard to see from the BACK of the TV. Remove the front panel of the TV to access the button. With the TV powered on press and hold the button until you see the convergence grid appear. Button is on the convergence board facing the front of theTV.

Again, Hope this helps ya.

When I first started mucking around in the service menu i ran into a bunch of controls like skew,pincushion, etc that i thought we're related to geometry?
It mentions them in the service manual as well, but the manual might as well be cantonese cause it doesn't tell you how to navigate the service menu or what menu you should be under when adjusting what, so i can't figure out how to get back into that menu. If that menu isn't for geometry then what's it for, the service manual mentions something about raster
Also my remote doesn't appear to have a status button, I have in descending order. Power, Tv, Cbl/Sat, dvd/vcr, pip, swap, pip mode, freeze, video, pip ch, menu, directional/cursor buttons, select, mute, exit, last ch, volume, channel, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ant, 0, info, stop/vid1, rewind/vid2, play/vid3, fastforward/vid4, rec, pause/vid5, aspect, virtual hd.

Those are related to the geometry, its odd that those are in your service menu though. I have the Hitachi65SWX20b, our service menus should be the same unless there's an updated firmware/board in your set. Typically, raster and pincushion are adjustments made on the neck of the gun, which I haven't touched. I never needed too or else I would have though. The Status button will be the "info" button on your remote control.

They probably are in your service menu as well. I wasn't paying attention when I found the adjustments but they definetly weren't in plain sight.
The one thing I don't like about crt's is there are so many different controls that have a similar effect but are slightly different like the screen controls vs the drive and cut controls. They got rid of the "screen" control completly with new technologies, plasma phosphors don't age evenly but you don't see a screen control for different colored phosphors I would assume people just use the drive and cut controls to counteract uneven aging. Thanks for your help

Do these things get any sharper? I'm using mine as a computer monitor and i've done evrything i can imagine to make it sharper. I've cleaned the lenses and mirror. I've adjusted focus on the focus block. I've adjusted focus at the lenses with my eyes 2-5 inches from the screen. I've set geometry as best i could to get rid of the ridiculous bowing at the bottom of the screen. Am i missing something here?
The only other things i can think of would be deep lens cleaning and crt shimming.
How much do either of those really effect the picture on a hitachi uwx model? Right now i'm fitting 972 pixels on the screen, would the jump to 1080 really be that noticeable when i can hardly see the difference between a 720p plasma and a 1080p plasma from 5-6 feet back? and how much would it effect uniformity which is already horrible on this screen (left side is red tinged right side is blue tinged) I run contrast around 25-30 and it's plenty bright for me so i don't think i'm overworking it.

CRT gets pretty sharp, but not as sharp as a DLP, LCD or plasma. I have yet to see a CRT RPTV get anywhere close to the definition of a digital set. The closest CRT that can accomplish that are the direct view HDTV sets. RPTV? No way. It just isn't going to happen at the level of sets we have. Now the professional CRT sets? Oh, hell to the yes!

What do you mean by professional? Can you give me an example?
Where we're you when I was thinking this is a great deal a free rear projection set with deep blacks and all I have to do is converge it
That didn't go quite to plan

Quit yer bitchin', it was free wasn't it?

Professional like editors, television stations etc...

Yeah... depends how you define free. Working on it has been fun, dragging it up a flight of steps and then down a flight of steps wasn't quite as much fun

Man... I just moved about two months ago, I had to move my 65 inch, 300 lbs RPTV down 3 flights of stairs by Myself cause everyone that said they'd help didn't show up lol it Sucked but worth it in the end

That's Insane!! Your dedication to your CRT is astounding, I'd ditch mine in a second if I ever had to attempt that. I had two people helping me out.
How did you pull it off? By dragging it up one step at a time?

Well fortunately Hitachi designed their 65 inch sets to split into two pieces for moving them. The top half (screen) weighs about 150 lbs by itself, not to heavy but a very awkward shape and really was the harder of the two pieces to move. The bottom piece which has all the electronics was heavy has Hell, Easily over 200 lbs! It wasn't dedication that made me move it, I mean I really wanted to keep the set but when I moved into that apt my credit score was pretty weak and had to lay out a HUGE deposit. If I left that tv in there I would have lost a good chunk of that deposit. Basically all I did was stand each piece up on its side so they were vertical, then I'd put my back to it, reach over my head and grab the piece behind me and just bend over. I carried them on my back like that, I also placed a small piece of wood on my back to keep the tv from digging into me.

What really annoyed me about that move was I had about 3 guys who said they'd come help me, even texting the morning of the move asking what time to show up. Not One of them showed, including my brother, which I've helped him move about 7 times in the past 10 years. Not only did they not show, they all quit answering their phones/texts... I'm waiting for each one of those guys to ask me for help, cause I'm gonna shine them on all the way up to the day they need it then just shut my phone off that day and drink a beer lol.

Hello,

I have a Samsung HL61A650 DLP thats just cycling on and off, dont have the time or the cash to try and fix it right now with all the problems I have been reading about it and a bulb may or may not fix it. So I also have a TOSHIBA THEATERVIEW I believe it is a TP50H60??? I'm not positive. The TV has always had a great picture and been super reliable.

I want to move the Toshiba into the living room to replace the Sammy for now, maybe for good IDK. Looking for advice on the best way too hook it up, the sammy is hooked up with HDMI, no choice there on the Toshiba. Nothing extravagant, will be hooking to a DENON 1912, Xfinity HD box, and probally a first gen Xbox just cause. What would be the best way to hook the reciever to the Toshiba??

Also what is the "Color Stream" connections on the TV, is that what is used for HD? I'm not even sure if the TV is HD ready but I know when it was hooked to it awhile ago the picture was better than hooked to SD.

Anyone have any picture settings they use for this TV, I know its a long shot but figured I'd ask

Thanks for your help, just really not sure the best way to connect the TV/Cable and reciever


One more thing, is there anybody that has any info on this TV, options to make it better, special features??? Its pretty much been the XBOX 360 TV for most its life

It appears that your reciever will only pass either hdmi or composite through to your tv.
Composite is the circular yellow input labeled monitor out which you don't want to use due to it's low quality but it is an option.
Component or colorstream is the best option for your tv. If your xfinity box has component outputs then you'll want to pick up a set of component cables and connect them directly from the xfinity to your tv.
Depending on how your reciever and cable/sat box works you might be able to connect the hdmi cable from your cable/sat box to the reciever and use that as a dedicated audio line while outputting component video, i'm not familiar with xfinity so i can't comment on that.
You might also send high quality audio to the orange colored circular input on your reciever called digital coaxial or through an optical cable to the optical input on your reciever next to the coaxial input. It's really a matter of what kind of cables you have, what your cable box will output and what your cable box will output simultaneously. You may have to change a setting in the menu of your cable box as we'll depending on what cable you use to carry the audio. The last method for audio would be the old red and white cables run from your cable box to your reciever. This won't give the best quality audio though and they are limited to carrying a stereo (2 speaker) signal.
I'm not sure what you have for cabling for the xbox or what the xbox will output.
I've heard that it will output in hd but i'm not sure which games support it, if any.
I don't think any xbox games had surround sound either but i could be wrong maybe someone else will have more knowledge in that area, good luck